Cord Jefferson

British singer and living embodiment of ennui Morrissey has reportedly yanked his upcoming book just a week before it'd been scheduled to hit shelves, and nobody really knows why. Well, I wonder.

In 2011 Penguin Books was said to be in talks with Moz about acquiring his autobiography, which came in at over 500 pages and is tentatively titled Autobiography. At the time, an unnamed spokesperson for the publisher was quoted in NME saying Morrissey's book was "a classic in the making."

But since then there's been scant evidence that Penguin had ever actually purchased the book or planned on releasing it. There were no review copies printed, for instance, and a Penguin spokesperson said as recently as January that there was "nothing on the schedule" from Morrissey.

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And yet Morrissey's rabid fan base continued to hold out hope that they'd see the crooner's book soon, only to have their dreams dashed today when Morrissey fan site True-To-You—"semi-official," according to the Guardian—reported that Autobiography was to be put on hold due to "a last-minute content disagreement" between the author and the publisher. ("Moz, we can't publish 50,000 words on vegetarianism and the royal family.")

Asked if Penguin had indeed intended to put out Morrissey's book before canceling the deal, Penguin publicity director Rosie Glaisher told me, "We have no comment to make on this subject."

So it's a good thing Morrissey fans are good at being disappointed with a cruel and loveless world. Though: "There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more."